Many of the principles of the theory of human learning are based upon the fundamental relationship between the anxiety (sometimes referred to as "arousal") level of an individual and his or her test performance. It it relatively well established that as anxiety increases, test performance also increases in a linear manner until a "stress point" is reached following which there is a precipitous drop in performance. Anxiety manifests itself both psychologically and physically and the resulting stress induced by such anxiety may be referred to as "psychophysiological stress".
A number of recent studies have been made involving measurement of anxiety as a function of elapsed time per test question, and self-report (questionnaires) data regarding anxiety level. These subjective measurements are then compared to the ratio of right and/or wrong answers, or alternatively, are compared to a measure of productivity on the test itself. As a result of the above discussed research, it has been established that an individual's productivity, in terms of performing goal oriented tasks, increases until a so-called stress point is reached. Beyond the stress point, productivity is negatively affected by anxiety. In the past, primarily behavioral techniques have been applied to reduce anxiety and thereby increase productivity.
One of the problems associated with prior attempts at correlating anxiety with the test performance involves the fact that these parameters were not measured simultaneously. For example, a subject was first trained to reduce anxiety following which the subject was tested to determine the effects of any behavior modifications resulting from the training. This approach to the problem is undesirable, however, because the subject is unaware during the test of his stress point for the particular task he is performing as well as his level of stress relative to that point.
Physiological monitoring, more popularly known as biofeedback, of stress related disorders has been used with increasing frequency in recent years. Biofeedback training has been applied to the treatment of stress related disorders such as tension headaches, migraine headaches, colitis and other disorders of the autonomic and peripheral nervous system. Such training has also been resorted to assist test anxious individuals in learning a relaxation response which can be applied when the subject is undergoing testing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,315 to John B. O'Leary discloses a method and apparatus for measuring the physical condition of a person. The apparatus comprises a portable heart monitor attached to a person and a plurality of circular foot paths positioned for sequential use by the person in order of increasing size. Marks are provided on the paths which indicate a fractional part of the circle to be covered in a measured number of seconds. A timer announces a tone at the end of the measured number of seconds to allow the person to pace himself in coverng the fractional parts in the required time interval. The heart monitor provides an alarm in the event that the person's heartbeat exceeds a safe level. The person is instructed by an observer to move to successively larger circles which require the person to increase his pace in order to traverse the fractional parts in the same time interval, thus causing the person's heartbeat to increase.
The objective of the O'Leary method described above is to monitor a physical parameter of the test subject, i.e., heartbeat. The test subject may or may not experience anxiety as a result of the test, but in any event the parameter being monitored is a physical one (heartbeat) and the changes in this physical parameter result from the test subject's physical activity rather than from psychological stress. More importantly, the task (traversing successively larger circles) is not changed in accordance with the monitored information; in other words, the task is altered without regard to the person's performance or the stress experienced by the person.
None of the known methods or apparatus used in the treatment of stress related disorders has successfully correlated an individual's performance of a goal oriented task with anxiety as measured by the subject's physiological response during performance of the task. It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a device implemented method for controlling stress of an individual engaged in a goal oriented, cognitive task.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device implemented method on the type mentioned above which calculates the individual's stress point during performance of the task and provides the individual with an indication of such stress point. As a corollary to the foregoing object, it is a further object of the invention to provide the subject with an indication of the level of stress he or she is experiencing relative to his or her stress point.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a device implemented method as described above which progressively increases the difficultly of the task in accordance with the individual's stress tolerance thereby to increase his stress point and productivity.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for managing the stress of a person engaged in a goal-oriented, cognitive task in which the person's performance is combined with the person's physiological response to form feedback data that is used to alter the task in a manner which increases the person's stress tolerance.
These, and further objects of the invention will be made clear or will become apparent during the course of a description of the invention provided hereinbelow.